Isabeli Fontana

There is talk that she will be the next face of Chanel cosmetics. Isabeli Fontana, 25 and Gisèle Bundchen's compatriot, is a model apart with two children and two divorces already behind her. Despite her tumultuous life, the feline Fontana continues to present a perfect figure and a sublime face, and has succeeded in becoming one of the top 15 best paid models in the world.

Brazil has the reputation of being the Earth Mother to the most beautiful women in the world. It is no surprise that Fontana was born there on July 4, 1983 in Curitiba, the capital of the state of Paraná, where she grew up with her two brothers, Harrison and Heric.

When she was 12, she told her mother that she wanted to become a model. Her mother encouraged her and she entered an Elite competition in São Paulo where she was one of the finalists.

The events of 1999 changed her life. Victoria's Secret asked her to pose in their catalog, despite the fact that she was only 16. The problem was that the lingerie label usually does not use models under the age of 21. The scandal broke, V.S. found themselves in a media storm, whereas Fontana gained a certain notoriety. Looking back, this scandal served her very well, allowing her to separate herself from the pack and launch her career.

As a result, after the famous arrival of Gisele Bündchen on the scene, the 2000s rolled out the red carpet for Fontana. She made the covers of Harper's Bazaar and Vogue France and walked for Givenchy and Jean Paul Gaultier haute couture, then re-entered the Victoria's Secret dream team.

Contrary to the majority of her catwalk colleagues, Fontana takes the time to have a full personal life despite her busy work schedule, sometimes at the price of her career. At 20, for example, she gave birth to Zion. Determined to provide a secure future, she dropped the baby weight in record time and declared that her pregnancy made her stronger. She quickly reappeared on the catwalks while Zion waited for her backstage with his nanny.

In 2004, the high-end fashion houses became interested in her. She became the new face of Hermès, signed a contract with Versace for their "Crystal Noir" perfume, posed for Balenciaga and appeared on the Vogue cover dedicated to tomorrow's top models. Her professional life was going well, but that was not the case for her personal life, as Fontana faced a turbulent divorce from the father of her son, Alvaro Jacomossi.

During this time, her career took off. She made the covers of the big magazines, signed extravagant contracts, and participated in the crème de la crème of fashion shows; in short, Fontana was becoming a star. In 2005, she seemed to find a certain stability in her personal life by marrying the actor Henri Castelli, with whom she had a second child. Luck was unkind to her again, however, and she divorced in 2007.

Despite the problems in her love life, Fontana remained one of the most requested models and managed to fulfill all the demands made on her. Since 2006, she has been photographed by the biggest names, appeared in countless editorials and signed new contracts. This young mother is everywhere, from the Victoria's Secret catwalk to the H&M lingerie campaign, and was named one of the best-paid models by Forbes.

Despite everything, the clock keeps ticking and even though she takes extremely good care of her body (e.g., she washes her face with Evian and uses Shiseido products), Fontana is aware that at 25 and with almost 10 years in the business, she should think about a career change. She intelligently invested part of her money (which allowed her to buy a superb property in Brazil) and has decided to take acting lessons.

However, given the comeback of certain models (and singers) after the age of 40 into the world of fashion (e.g., Jerry Hall for Chanel, Claudia Schiffer for YSL, and Madonna for Louis Vuitton), there is hope that a model's career will no longer be limited by her age.